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Deftly written and beautifully illustrated, The Worlds of Medieval Europe, Third Edition, presents a distinctive and nuanced portrayal of the Greater West during its medieval millennium. By integrating the histories of the Islamic and Byzantine worlds into the main narrative, author Clifford R. Backman offers an insightful, detailed, and often witty look at the continuum of interaction--social, cultural, intellectual, and commercial--that existed among all three societies.

This compelling volume surpasses traditional textbook representations of the Middle Ages by balancing the conventional focus on political affairs, especially those of northern Europe, with equally detailed attention to medieval society as it developed in the Mediterranean. In addition, Backman describes the ways in which the medieval Latin West attempted to understand the unified and rational structure of the human cosmos, which they believed existed beneath the observable diversity and disorder of the world. This effort to recreate a human ordering of "unity through diversity" provides an essential key to understanding medieval Europe and the ways in which it regarded and reacted to the worlds around it.

Clifford R. Backman is Associate Professor of History at Boston University. He is the author of The Cultures of the West (OUP, 2013) and The Decline and Fall of Medieval Sicily: Politics, Economy, and Religion in the Reign of Frederick III, 1296-1327 (1995).

List of mapsPreface to the Third EditionAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Why the Middle Ages Matter

Part One: The Early Middle Ages: The Third through Ninth Centuries

1. The Roman World at its Height The Geography Of Empire The Role Of The Military Roman Society Roman Government The Challenges of The Third Century Reform, Recovery, Persecution, and FavorSuggested Reading

2. The Rise of ChristianityBefore ChristThe Growth of the New ReligionThe Problem of PersecutionThe Problem of HeresyConstantine and Theodosius: An Imperial ChurchResponses to ImperializationSuggested Reading

3. Early Germanic SocietyGermanic LifeMigrations And InvasionsEurope's First KingdomsGermanic Christianity And The Fourth "Doctor Of The Church"Suggested Reading

4. Cloister and CultureThe Rise Of Monasticism In The EastThe Rise Of Monasticism In The WestCultural Life in The West: Cassiodorus, Boethius, And St. BenedictSuggested Reading

5. The Emergence of the Medieval WorldsContinuity and Change in Northern EuropeContinuity and Change in the MediterraneanThe Rise of IslamA Tripartite WorldSuggested Reading

Part Two: The Central Middle Ages: The Tenth through Twelfth Centuries

7. The Time of TroublesTrouble From WithinTrouble From The NorthTrouble From The EastTrouble From The SouthThe End Of The World?Suggested Reading

8. Revolutions on Land and SeaChanges on The LandA Peasant Society EmergesChanges on The Seaa maritime society emergessuggested reading

9. A New Europe Emerges: North and SouthThe Rise of Feudal SocietyThe First German EmpireThe Rise of Capetian FranceThe Anglo-Norman RealmThe Spanish KingdomsThe Italian SceneSuggested Reading

10. The Reform Of The ChurchThe Origins Of The ReformThe Papal RevolutionChristendom And The EastMonastic ReformsSuggested Reading

11. The Renaissances of the Twelfth CenturyAristotle, Anselm, Abelard, And Ibn RushdLaw And Canon LawThe Recovery Of ScienceThe Rise Of The UniversitiesCourtly Life, Love, And LiteratureSuggested Reading

12. The Papal MonarchyChurch Against State Once MoreThe Consolidation Of Papal AuthorityThe Revival Of HeresyThe Albigensian Crusade And The Origins Of The InquisitionSuggested Reading

Part Three: The Late Middle Ages: The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries

13. Politics in the Thirteenth CenturyThe Rise Of Representative InstitutionsEngland And FranceGermany, Italy, And The PapacyThe New Mediterranean SuperpowersByzantium and Islam in the Thirteenth CenturySuggested Reading

14. Art and Intellect in the Thirteenth CenturyScholasticismFrom Romanesque to Gothic Vision Science And TechnologyAspects of Popular CultureSuggested Reading

15. Daily Life at the Medieval ZenithEconomic ChangesPeasants' LivesTownsfolks' LivesThe Question of LiteracySex and the City (and the Town, and the Village)Suggesting Reading

16. Changes in Religious LifeThe Importance Of Being PenitentThe Importance Of Being PoorThe Humanization of Christ and the Cult of the VirginMysticismSuggested Reading

17. The Crises of the Fourteenth CenturyEconomic DifficultiesThe Great FamineThe Black DeathWar EverywhereChallenges To Church UnitySuggested Reading

18. Signs of a New EraWilliam of OckhamMarsilius of PaduaDante Alighieri and Geoffrey ChaucerChristine de PizanSuggested Reading

Part Four: Two Epilogues

19. Closings In, Closings OutThe Last Years of ByzantiumThe Search for a New Route to the EastClosing In on Muslim SpainThe Expulsions of the JewsClosing In Forever: The Forced Cloistering of Women ReligiousSuggested Reading

20. The Renaissance In Medieval ContextEconomies New and Old circa 1400The Meaning of HumanismThe Canonization of Classical CultureThe Rejection of the Middle AgesSuggested Reading